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MERICAN, 

LOOK INTO 
YOUR HEART! 

by 

HENRY A WISE WOOD 



1917 

National Security League 
31 pine street 
new york city 



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AMERICAN, 

LOOK INTO 
YOUR HEART! 

TO you, whose forbears broke 
this continent to the plough 
and set up in it a free people, I 
address myself. 

I appeal to you for the restora- 
tion of the ideal of patriotism which 
years of tawdry misuse have made 
almost obsolete, and I plead for 
your cheerful acceptance of the 
obligations of patriotic service. 
You and I pride ourselves upon 
our being of the stock that founded 
this republic; have we not ceased 
to demand of ourselves that we 
repeat even in small measure the 
services we are so fond of asserting 
our ancestors rendered it? 



Our flag, of which we sing like 
braggarts, cost those who first raised 
it their sweat and their blood. Do 
we recall this when we arise to 
our feet at sound of the national 
anthem? Do we recollect that the 
flag is the symbol of their sweat, 
spent when our ancestors cut from 
the forests our homes, and of their 
blood, shed when they wrested our 
liberties from their oppressors ? 

I doubt it, for the flag has been 
our boast, not our inspiration. We 
flaunt the flag in token of our 
self-styled greatness, with never the 
thought that a flag is but a sorry 
rag of pretense unless it be the 
testament of the fearless devotion 
of a people for a cause. Are we 
fearless? Are we devoted? Have 
we a cause? Have we a flag? Is 
our flag but a rag? These ques- 
tions you and I must answer in 
deeds ; they may not be answered 
in words. 

We are the descendents of patri- 
otic forbears, but are we in turn 



bequeathing to our descendents a 
record of our own patriotism ? To 
arouse the tang of patriotism in 
their blood must your children and 
mine pass over us ? Must they go 
back half a century, a century, or a 
century and a third for something 
to be proud of? 

If you say the work is finished, 
that now there is no need for 
patriotism, History replies: T'he 
work of patriotism never is finished; 
when it lags your country suffers, when 
it ceases your country becomes extinct. 
And Truth adds : Tour country now 
is in sore straits — in sore straits 
because your patriotism has been a 
sham patriotism, a thing of svords \ 
instead of actions, of blatant phrases 
instead of devoted thought, instead 
of personal service, instead of self- 
sacrifice. 

You and I brag of our history, 
our country, our wealth, our virtue, 
our greatness. We talk loudly of 
the Flag of the Free, and we wave 
it and shout. Then, filled with the 



pride of '76, we rattle our flintlocks, 
shake our fists at Europe, and go 
back to our work and amusement. 

Such patriotism is sham^ all sham I 
It merely is the froth that foams 
off a people rotten with individual 
selfishness, with sectional preju- 
dice, with class jealousy, and 
ignorant of the world ; a people of 
petty states that have not become 
a nation, who lack wholly that 
sacred solidarity of subconscious 
thought called a national spirit. 
Where is there among us that 
yearning for country which impels 
one to give himself without barter 
to the flag that is over his head, 
and forbids him to snatch from it 
contemptible advantages that can 
be got without cost ? 

We take, we never give ; we 
demand that the flag shall protect 
us, but we hesitate, we refuse, to 
protect the flag. The flag must 
give to us shelter and wealth, and 
the vanity of believing ourselves a 
great and a glorious people. But 



we must not be asked to give 
aught to the flag of service, of 
money, of anything. 

The American does not wish 
to be burdened with the flag, 
so he hires a few men to haul it 
up in the morning and down at 
night. And upon these he shoul- 
ders all of his duties of practical 
patriotism. Call him unpatriotic 
and he knocks you down ; set him 
at a patriotic task and away from 
it he rushes, whistling the Star 
Spangled Banner. 

But patriotism such as this no 
longer is to be tolerated. The time 
has come when the patriotism of 
words is a dangerous thing unless 
it be backed by the patriotism 
of action, by the forethought and 
wisdom which acquire the power 
to make words good. The times 
have ceased to be in careless mood. 
The nations are dangerous; they are 
bleeding and hungry, and we are 
fattening upon their misfortunes. 
The ink of diplomacy no longer 



is black, it is red; and it is no safe 
act for any nation to claim even 
its rights without having in hand 
the means to enforce them. 

This brings a new duty into your 
life and my life, the duty of active 
preparation for the defense of our 
rights and our land. Shall we 
be weak, and shirk it? Shall we 
attempt to escape its cares and 
its costs, and let come what may ? 
Shall we temporize, and let Utopian 
dreams delude us into the belief 
that the self-righteous may as safely 
depend upon the defensive value 
of defenselessness as upon ships 
and men? Only the unsanity of a 
sexless fanaticism has answered to 
this, Yes! But upon such a reply 
the extinct peoples cry out: No 
nation ever was builded or preserved 
by the unmanly disciples of Impotence! 

No, there is but a single path 
open to our safety — to the moral 
security which comes of the courage 
and determination to enforce the 
right, and the material security 



which lies in the ability to enforce 
it. To pursue that path we must 
apply the cautery of patriotism each 
to his own instincts of selfishness, 
until there shall be yielded gladly 
by each the uttermost national 
service of which he is capable, a 
service for which no return other 
than the common good is sought. 
If such be the spirit of a people 
that its individuals will make the 
sacrifices necessary to insure the 
safety and wellbeing of the whole, 
then the essentials of national self- 
preservation have been achieved. 
The means needed to carry these 
into effect will spring naturally into 
being. If we Americans are to 
remain a great Power, secure in 
our liberties, our rights, and our 
territory, it is upon our unfaltering 
acceptance of the principles of 
universal patriotic service, and their 
translation into the daily thought 
and action of our lives, that we must 
wholly depend. Upon nothingness 
ever was founded great nationality. 



But do we desire great nation- 
ality? / do y do you? Are we ready 
and willing to make the sacrifices 
necessary to its upbuilding? / anty 
are you ? Shall we renew in our- 
selves for the purpose the old fiber 
that cleared this continent, and 
drove out of it our enemies ? / 
willy will you? Shall we pledge 
ourselves to endure, regardless of 
cost? I ampledgedyareyou? Decide y 
for this is the critical hour! 

American, dare you look into 
your heart and not answer? 

Henry A. Wise Wood 




020 914 161 9 



